pursuit. they recaptured him quickly. check how he got out of a loose handcuff. >> i'll kick you in your [ bleep ] head. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." john king usa starts right now. thanks, wolf. good evening. tonight we're in louisiana. the water is here, you see them behind me. theorizing, slowly but steadily. in a week from now some of the homes in this community likely to be under water. look around. no sandbags, no urgent flood control efforts. one of the small towns potentially being sacrificed. deliberately flooded to protect more populated areas like baton rouge and new orleans from devastating flood levels. we spent our day today traveling up and down the mississippi river in louisiana and in mississippi, and tonight we'll

show you its powerful punch in many forms. right here the pace of change is slow yet certain. last night we showed you the spillway from above a helicopter ride. the gates open toded to the gates open toded t divert wr away from mississippi. now the water is rising slowly as you see it. you see the rails that go up behind my shoulder. nose are normally dry. that's the edge of the river. it's rising more slowly than the engineers originally predicted. the folks were told by the mississippi crests near here next tuesday many of the homes could be underwater. dwayne moved here four months ago for the peace and quiet. he likes the birds and the schools. >> a lot of broken hearts right now. a lot of broken hearts. but in the back of our mind we all knew that it would happen. we just didn't know when.

so we just, like i said, we just deal with it. that's all we can do. >> tonight there's a bit of a mixed message from political leaders. on one hand they're pleased with flood control and diversion efforts. in some areas they believed would see deep flooding now may see much less water. yet governor jindal warned the record water levels could last for more than a month and urged people not to get complaisant. more than 4,800 people displaced by the flooding in mississippi. here in louisiana, 4,000 people evacuated so far. most of them, like these neighbors right here, not sure what will be here if and when they're able to return. it is something to watch. the mississippi is methodical but powerful. take a look at these pictures. the swollen river and the steady current as it approaches not just mississippi. on the left of the screen is louisiana. on the right is natchez. mostly built up on the hills. some low lying homes are being wiped out. and look at this.

is this a schoolyard? not exactly. this is a recreation area for members of the united states coast guard. this is their station in mississippi. normally this is a parking lot. across the river we arrive this morning to find a red hot mayor. he just reached the barriers around his town's river front convention center. the coast guard refused to stop the barge traffic that kicks up big waves and brings up more water. the coast guard put a 24-hour freeze on traffic. and the mayor said he's now confident a $100 million waterfront development should suffer only minimal damage. >> $100 million worth of investment we have on the river front. very vital to the economy. it's 300 jobs. it's, of course, the economic impact would be astronomical. >> more of our day in a few moments. let's touch base with correspondents tracking the impact of this record flooding. martin savage is in mississippi.

first to david mattingly in louisiana. the community is a virtual ghost town, and a place with a new challenge tonight, looting. david? >> reporter: that's right, john. looting is a component of just about any natural disaster, and just as authorities have tried to stay out in front of the flood, they now want to try to get out in front of the looting. t the problem they have now is the flood is not coming as fast as they hoped it would. when people thouggot the evacua orders, they thought the water would be up to here now. instead we have big ghost towns, these empty houses on dry land, and authorities are very concerned, keeping an eye in this parish alone, on about 700 empty houses. but the sheriff here is also taking it a step further, preparing water patrols to go out onto the water to watch for waterfront houses, to take care of them. also to be prepared for when the waters do get here to take

advantage of the boats, to get to these house where the looters themselves may be using boats to go in. we saw one house today that had a six-foot wall of sand and plastic around it, very effective at keeping the floodwaters out, but not so much against the looters. listen. is that going to be enough to keep looters out? >>. >> no. >> that's what you're here for. >> that's my job, yes. looters, there's a stairway they can crawl over. they'll bring whatever they need to get in. they'll have to come by boat. if they have to get in, they will. so we're going to be here by boat, protecting this. >> about 10% of the people in areas asked to evacuate are staying behind. the biggest reason for that 10% is to watch their property. they'll take their chances with mother nature, john, but not always with human nature. >> david mattingly, live for us in louisiana tracking that important story. we flew over a good chunk of the

flood zone yesterday, and from up above it gives you a great appreciation for the levy system. the traces, the path of the mighty mississippi. it is first and foremost a flood wall. as martin savage tells us tonight, when the roads are underwater it can also double as an access trail to places like eagle creek, mississippi. martin? >> reporter: yeah, we just want to show you one other thing before we get rolling. that's look at the scene behind us. it looks like an idealic canal, perhaps, north of vicksburg. then have the camera pan onto the left, and you realize we're on the street. it's the middle of the community. it's another community up here. five suburbs that are now completely inundated with water. for these people, that water is going to be there a long time. it is water that is coming off a number of the major arteries around this town, and around this area. one of the scenes we looked at today was highway 61. highway 6 1 is a major north/south, very historic artery.

the problem is now, the water has gone completely over that roadway. we road on that roadway just two days ago. now it looks like it's a lake that is out there. that's disrupting commercial traffic. it's also disrupting emergency traffic. and that's the problem for the town of eagle lake. which is kind of like what we saw there in david mattingly's spot, in that you have a community of well over a thousand people that have been totally evacuated. the area is completely isolated with one exception, the main route in is now riding on the main mississippi levy. not the usual form of transportation, but that's how we traveled to get in. and once you arrive, it is a ghost town. there is nobody or very few people there. and the water is not in that city at al. however, you have the mississippi levy on one side. you have the backwater levy on the other side. they're just considered to be too great a threat. and it takes too long for emergency responders to get there if there was an emergency. so take everybody out. in the meantime, sheriffs

patrols routinely go through the streets. they're there, even if the people are not. john in? >> martin savage for us tonight near vicksburg, mississippi. this is a blue collar place. sugar cane is biggest farm crop. the parish president is with us now to discuss the punishing impact of this flooding. thanks for being with us on a difficult night. as you look around this community. this would be dry. the edge of the river would be, gosh, 50 yards out that way. how many homes, how many homes in your parish do you expect because of the decision to deliberately flood it, will be buried? >> i would say about a thousand homes will be flooded in both upper and lower saint martin parish. that's just an estimate. we're going off the course decision and the weather forecasters saying the river should be at habit 27 feet. that's what we're basing the decision on. we're taking one on the chin not only for america but for louisiana as well. >> you say taking it on the

chin, people are i'm sure applauding you, people in new orleans and baton rouge are grateful. what is it like when you say to somebody, who maybe asked time you asked for their vote, now you're saying, i'm sorry, but your house is going to be gone. >> it's a tough deal. it's heart renching. we recognize the mississippi river is what made louisiana what it is. a very profitable river for us. a lot of us make our living based on what goes on in the mississippi river. it's hard when you visit with a family who own and operate everything they have in the area. the decision has been made. we're just going to have to battle it. but we're fighting people. >> how are may made whole if the government takes my house, they have to compensate me, what happens to these folks? >> some of them have insurance. some of them don't. fema said they would come in and help where they can. again, we're fighting people. and at the end of the day the water is going to rise, but we're going to rise as well.

>> a blue collar community. average income in the 30,000 range a year. people who shrimp and crawfish. a lot of farming in the community. you ever seen anything like this? >> the weird part is we're in the middle of a drought. my parish hadn't seen significant rain for some time. federal floodwaters. we have to deal with it. >> because of the draught, this water is not as high as you would have thought 48 hours ago when they opened up the spillway and let it out. does that leave you confident that in the end you will lose a thousand homes but not 1,500? the original forecast was 29 feet. we were in a panic here. we based our decision based on 29 feet. we have move that had a little bit and went to plan "b" at 27 feet. but in a sense, it's still a lot of water. it's still a lot of water. >> and these homes right where we are now. these homes are up on stilts. the shed is already in the

water. this water eventually, the crest will be around tuesday. you still have a week before you get the biggest crest. how high will this water get? >> that water will reach the shed. probably be in it. definitely over those people's porch right there. >> you believe these houses, because of the lower water and because of where we are, particularly higher area, not a high area, but a higher area, they'll be okay. >> right. they built on the river. they built with that in mind. we received backwater flooding. the rest of the community is not protected by the levy behind us. the water will come behind us and flood us from the back side. it's basically where most of our damage will be. >> i appreciate your time tonight. best of luck in the days ahead. still ahead, a closer look at the impact of these rising floodwaters. >> going to have a tremendous amount of infrastructure repair we'll have to do. we have streets and sewage and drainage. i've been here all my life. >> never soon anything like this? >> never have.

it's just unbelievable. >> but next, other news tonight. al qaeda has a new leader. an egyptian but perhaps not the man you expected. ♪ [ male announcer ] humble beginnings are true beginnings. they are the purest way to gauge success. ♪ maybe the only way to gauge success. but the most powerful thing about humble beginnings is that they are... ♪ ...humbling. ♪ show where you're going without forgetting where you're from. ♪

live pictures tonight from

louisiana. it looks beautiful, doesn't it? that water is not supposed to be there only way over behind the trees should you be able to see the river. that is water released from the spillway was opened. these communities being deliberately flooded to divert the waters from baton rouge and new orleans. more on the flood prevention efforts under way in mississippi and louisiana. tonight al qaeda has an interim replacement for osama bin laden. he's an egyptian named saif al-adel. cnn has been told he's been appointed interim chief of al qaeda because the community has grown restless about the lack of a formal announcement about bin laden's successor. fran townsend is here. both the department of homeland security and the cia. and with us from washington, peter bergen. you studied al qaeda for some time. why now, and why not the number

two, al-zawahiri, but this man? >> well, according to the source of this story, a long time associate of both bin laden and zawahiri. they were getting restless about the lack of a normal announcement about somebody to replace bin laden. they tapped saif al adel, who has been involved in anti-american activity since 1993. been involved in jihadist activities to be the de facto leader of al qaeda while they seek the formal announcement of perhaps what will turn out to be zawahiri. that hasn't happened. >> fran townsend, take us through files. when you were in the bush files, did saif al-adel come to your attention? >> absolutely.

saif al-adel is a certified ally. he's indicted in the united states, here in the southern district of snooi for his planning role in the east africa embassy bombings in 1998. this is a guy who sits on the military, is rumors to have sat on the military council. the ruling council of al qaeda. after the u.s. began bombing afghanistan, he flood with bin laden and at least two of his sons. this guy has real credibility within the ranks. he set up training camps in somalia and afghanistan. he was also the one who authorized and advocated for the beginning of terrorist activities inside saudi arabia in 2003. in 2004 the saudis got his diary there, and it revealed he had been one of the few senior guys in al qaeda briefed on the use of planes for the 9/11 attack.

he has a different philosophy than bin laden did. he looks at regional conflicts. he's out of egypt. he's a member of the islamic jihad, responsible for the assassination of sidat. so he's very focused on local regional conflicts and unseating those in power. >> and peter, we talked about this since the death of bin laden, who would they choose. you talked about they may not want al zawahiri because he's an egyptian. now the interim leader is another egyptian. is it an act of defiance or a test? >> it may be the latter. zawahiri is an egyptian who has been involved in jihadi activities. that's the most holy land of

islam. there was a certain constituency in al qaeda who would like a saudi or yemeni. a lot of the leaderships of al qaeda have been e jap chan, and so this may be their way of testing the waters for the ve h eventual takeover of zawahiri, who has been around for a limon time. >> in the sense of the hunt for bin laden is over, many watching would ask the question, why haven't we been able to find the number two or now the new number one? >> well, it waltzs into the issue of the day, and that's cooperation with pakistan. in addition to these guys, the network working to kill u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. there's the council. there are plenty of people if pakistan was so inclined to be of assistance, they could do

that. sources say it's to make sure intelligence and military officials can work through some of their issues. they need to be deliverable when she comes out of the meetings in pakistan. hopefully, john, it would lead to the capture or killing of additional leaders of al qaeda. >> peter, any other message in this appointment or announcement or development in the sense that since the death of bin laden, when we're getting source accounts of what's in the compound in pakistan, there has been talk of rift. fran just mentioned he wants to focus on regional conflicts. we know from the documents and sources there have been tensions that some of the ranking file thought bin laden was too obsessed with the united states, too worried about big grand scale attacks. does this appointment send any kind of message in that apointment? >> i think it does. it was predictable in the wake of bin laden's death there would be a debate about leadership, direction of the group, all the

things were predicted before bin laden died. and they're happening. and that's a good thing. and we're seeing probably disputes internally, not only just about the leadership, but also about the future direction. those disputes have always been latent and bin laden was able to paper over them. he was a big temp leader. somebody with a lot of charisma. somebody that people within the group really loved. those disputes have been there for more than a decade. now we'll see more of this as time goes on. what are their sense of the conversations whether turmoil or transition at the top of al qaeda? >> well, it's clear. peter mentioned it. there are real tepgss. tensions. and now i believe the naming of an interim leader allows more time and opportunity for this to become divisive. no question. someone who is a real leader in terms of operational capability has anwar al-alaki.

we can expect the affiliate groups will jockey for prestige, for power, and to control the future direction of al qaeda. he has continued to try to target the united states. whether the attempted underwear bomber on a christmas day plane. the computer cartridges and cargo planes or nidal hasan at ft. hood. he represents that faction of targeting western interests as opposed to saif al-adel. and what the intelligence community hopes for is just such tension, just such conflict. >> fran townsend, peter bergen, important help on an important story tonight. thank you both. when we come back. more coverage of the flooding impact. still to crest where we are in louisiana. we'll go to this louisiana. we'll go to mississippi. enwe'll talk to chad myers. he'll help us understand why this flood is shattering the records

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live picture there of louisiana tonight. much of what you're seeing should be dry land. only in the far outskirts of that you see the railings in the shot? that should be dry. the river beginning just after that. the water is rising here because the spillway was opened. this is deliberately flooding this community. part of the pain and sadness you find along the mississippi flood zone tonight. there is pain and sadness, but there's not a lot of surprises.

plenty of warning the mississippi was swollen and coming south with a powerful punch. they allowed officials down river to debate a number of flood controls scenarios. what was ultimately implemented is historic. three flood control barriers opened for the same time ever. two in louisiana. chad myers in the cnn weather center to help us understand. chad, let's just begin with that. what is it about this flood that has it breaking all the records is this. >> the levies. believe it or not, the levies. because the last time we had a historic flood like this, john, there were no levies. and the water was able to go further east and west and so the level, the foot level of the river didn't get as high. it got wider, but it didn't get as high. so let's break this down. a normal flow at memphis tennessee is 450,000 cubic feet pr second. multiply by seven you get gallons per second. whatever. just number. last week at memphis 1.4 million

cubic feet per seconds. but the river was high. breaking records. breaking records not seen since '27 and '37. why? because the river has been contained in a smaller area so it must go up higher. it's like putting a cup of water in a tumbler or putting it in a big glass. the highball glass is smaller around, so the water appears to be higher than in a flat tumbler. back in the great flood of 1927, 2.3 million cubic feet of flood per second. almost double what we had this year. because the walls, the levies were not habl to keep the water in, miles and miles and tens of miles east and west of the mississippi were flooded by that disaster. a big time disaster. now something else that has happened. they opened up the lake gates. and the lake pontchartrain gate,

1.4 million gallons per minute from this spillway of lake water going into pontchartrain. to give you an idea of how much water, how much fresh water is pouring into lake pontchartrain, it is almost two-thirds of the gulf oil spill goes into lake pontchartrain every minute. that's why there's a big mud hole as the muddy water from the mississippi has made its way there. john? >> when we arrived in louisiana this morning, the mayor was in the middle o what i'll call an animated telephone conversation with the government. he was calming down a bit. the coast guard agreed to a 24-hour freeze on big barge traffic past his town. they caused wake. they send more water to the coastline. enough time the mayor said he

hoped to prevent a big breach in the barrier protecting his town's backbone. >> this is the mighty mississippi river, as you can see. the swift current going through there right now. where the trees are, that's just about 20 feet from the normal river. on a normal day like this, a beautiful day like this, this would be all along the river. >> the river walk is full of people walking and enjoying the river. now you can sit there, if you want -- we have had some people go down south and fish for cat fish and catch pretty good mess of cat fish. >> this is $100 million investment within the community along the river front. very vital to the economy. it's 300 jobs. we did the whole project in securing all the buildings in three and a half days. what we did originally, we started to go and just put the boxes around out of perimeter. then we decided this, if it

broke, then the whole system would collapse. so we decided to go in each individual building and bild and island within itself. we have barge traffic in and out of if river. we understand that's an economic issue, too. >> how hard is the back and forth been? >> yes. i with understand losing $350 million a day because of this situation we had a critical issue. we asked them to give us a little time to go in and fix that problem. they did. they agreed to do so. >> 24 hours. >> 24 hours. >> do you think you can get it done in that? >> got do get it done. >> right. >> got to get it done. and we will. >> how much more water you got come sng. >> we have about another foot. a little more than a foot that will crest saturday at 6.3 feet. >> you're going to have this water for a long time? >> at least until june 14th of 15th. after the river goes down, we're going to have a tremendous amount of infrastructure repair that we're going to have to do.

we have streets and sewage and drainage. here all my life. it's june unbelievable. >> some people say why did you build here? well, they built here under the premise that they were above the 100-year floodplain, which is basically 75 feet. they built it to 78 feet. but this is a 500-year floodplain. and no one had any idea or any concept of how quick this happened until the magnitude. we look at the mississippi river now and it's the lifeline of our communities, our water systems shipping, receiving, so, you know, sometimes it tells you, hey, you think you have me controlled? let me show you every now and then that's not going to be the case. we learned lessons from that. hopefully we can control it a little bit more. but it's the mighty mississippi. >> it's the boss. >> it's the boss.

>> now you heard the mayor there say the coast guard agreed to shut down the barge traffic for 24 hours. we received word that from the coast guard in coordination with the mayor they're prepared to resume barge traffic back in the community. they've touched basis with the mayor. the coast guard will resume traffic. we'll keep an eye on that. you see the beautiful na trknat bridge. they're high up on the hillside, mostly protected from the floodwaters. the coast guard station is right down along the river. the men and women who normally patrol the mississippi river today are getting an urgent lesson in flood control. as you can see, we're about chest deep here. department of homeland security, this would be the united states coast guard. this is the natchez station, nathchez, mississippi, station of the coast guard. this is the outdoor parking lot. you come over here, it's slow going, trust me. right under here, somewhere, i'm

going to find it in just a second, you drive to work. you have to punch in your code. here's the keyboard down here. here's the top of the console right here. this is not the way nay normally go to and from work. >> the only way to get out. >> the only way to get out at the moment. i'm on an inclean cleaincline. about four and a half feet from the water up to the hoop. more than five feet of water there. this is a recreation area for members of the united states coast guard. this is their station in ma s natchez, mississippi. instead you she the flood control efforts here of the coast guard operation. they have cement barriers down here. sandbags on top. you hear the pump ls. think got an inch, inch and a half of water inside. so far, so good is their perspective. the river will crest on saturday. they expect to get an inch, maybe another inch and a half of water here. they're pumping it out as fast as they can. if you look this way, you see

the ship there of the coast guard against the pier it's tied up. normally it would be tied up where the white circles are out there. because the water is so high, they can't tie it up there because it would buck in this way towards the coastline. so instead they've tied it up over there. now the guys say when they were working here the other day, putting out the sandbags, over here, you can't see the fence. you can see the back end of the fence over here. if you come to the left, the fence is underwater as the water gets deeper. they saw something swimming over here between the basketball court and the pier. they called in fish and wildlife. they pulled out of the water. ultimately caught a 1'010'2''al gator. you see them here along the levies. you'll see cow, deer and governor jindal told me even black bears coming to the high ground along the levy system

because the natural habitat is now underwater. as we were leaving the natchez coast guard the fire department said they spotted another alligator in the water. one of the many challenges in all these communities. the crest in expected on saturday. hoar it's predicted to be next tuesday. some of these homes could be gone by then. but the homeowners here still can't believe that. it's been high here before, but never have i had water in my yard. never. i'm one of the highest pieces of property in butte larose. we're praying it doesn't come up four or five feet. then everything i did in here would be just devastated. i don't know if i would ever want to come back. >> we'll continue our flood coverage here. also ahead, new details of the sex scandal that has one of france's most prominent political figures in a new york

jail. and newt gingrich says don't expect him to be consistent on the big issues.

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welcome back. we're live in the floodwaters in butte larose, louisiana. today maria shriver responded to the revelation that her es stranged husband, former

california governor arnold schwarzenegger father ad child. she said this is a painful and heartbreaking time. as a mother, my concern is for the children. i asker for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and i try to rebuild our lives and heal. today former white house senior adviser david axelrod discussed the story with cnn's piers morgan. >> in the case of arnold schwarzenegger. do you think if the electorate knew he had another child he would have still become governor. >> i suspect that it didn't become public until afterwards suggests he didn't believe that. >> you can see the entire discussion with david axelrod at 9:00 p.m. eastern on piers morgan tonight. nikki haley slammed newt

gingrich. a spokesman says the former house speakerphoned house budget committee chairman paul ryan late this afternoon, ryan is pushing the medicare plan gingrich criticized over the weekend. he now says gingrich apologized. and his spokesman said there were no hard feelings. the former speaker was accused of not having good message discipline. that controversy continues. >> it's been an interesting week. he's been in politics a long time. you know him well. this has been the wrap on im. maybe we'll have an individual mandate in health care. th then in next day, that's not what i was saying. he told jim acosta in i belieow believe. he said most campaigns go into secret concessions, come up with a plan and stick to it. he says i think you're better off engaging the american people in a dialogue when they can participate in the development of ideas. essentially saying sometimes i might debate myself.

i'm not sure how it will play out. >> it's a good way to say i'm not going to stay on message and get everybody to understand it, i guess. >> maybe people will like it. most people look for a president, i think, who sets down his markers and judge him from that. joe, we'll see you a bit later. ahead, veal patties for dinner? we'll have the latest from rikers island including why some in france are outraged over video showing him in handcuffs web browsing

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the latest on a sex scandal that is dominating world headlines. dom niece strauss-kahn is under a suicide watch at rikers island jail. also new details about the woman who is accusing him of assault. a 32-year-old single mother originally from guinea. deb, did anything specific trigger the suicide watch, or is it a protective measure? >> it is a protective measure. they put him on suicide watch. this is a man used to meeting with presidents and prime ministers and power brokers. he's now isolated from the general population of the prison on a special wing of rikers island. his wife arrived yesterday too late to see her husband in court. strauss-kahn's lawyers both

declined to speak with us today, but they said he's going to plead not guilty. and they believe the forensic evidence will indicate there was no forced encounter. when we asked the lawyer for the alleged victim, the # 32-year-old west african if this was consensual, here's the answer we got. >> there was not any aspect of this that could be misconstrued as consensual. she's frightened, yes. totally frightened. this is a person who assaulted her and raped her, and any television program that she turns on, he's pictured on it. she has to relive this. it's a nightmare that keeps recycling in her mind, and she can't escape from it. she has no point of refuge. >> deb, 32 years old. a west african originally. what else are we learning? >> she has a 15-year-old

daughter. her lawyer describes her as dig a dignified and intelligent. the day of the assault the housekeeper entered the luxury suite around noon thinking it was empty. that's when dominique strauss-kahn supposely shut the door and the alleged assault took place. she's afraid to go home and afraid to go to work. her future uncertain because of what happened. >> has she testified before a grand jury yet? >> as of this afternoon, no, she has not. she's got her story. the grand jury has until friday to vote on whether or not to indict the indictment, whether it to happen would be sealed. so we'll know at such time that a second court date is set, john. >> deb feyerick with the latest on the legal case for us tonight. deb, thanks. before his arrest dominique strauss-kahn was considered a leading challenger in next year's presidential election in the state of france. you were with us last night.

kind enough to come back and join us tonight. terry, let's start with the reaction to the pictures of mr. strauss-kahn handcuffed. that's caused a bit of a blowback in france. almost sympathy? >> that would be an understatement, john. i spoke to my mother this morning. how upsetting she found these images. if you knew my mom, you would know she does not continue tone in any way or form sexual violence, but you would never imagine you would see something like this in france and it is, indeed, illegal for about ten years or so as it is deemed to be incompatible with the presumption of innocence. it ka can not work that way. and interestingly, the french equivalent to the fcc put out a statement this morning reminding all television networks these pictures were illegal in france. on our network, we have a french lawyer for dominique strauss-khan who i can tell you was very angry, indeed. >> you mentioned the anger. i want to read an editorial.

people in the united states might not know that, it's not your culture or custom to show these photos. they are for better or worse quite common in the united states. the lemond newspaper wrote this statement -- essentially, that editorial saying that perhaps we say in the united states innocent until proven guilty. they don't believe it in france. is that right? >> yes, exactly. the point is it is deemed to be incompatible with the presumption of innocence. there's a reason why the perp walk is called the perp walk. it's because the person who is walking the walk, so to speak, looks like he or she perpetrated a crime. and that is the case for dominique strauss-khan in the eyes of many french people is being in a sense found guilty by these pictures even before he has undergone a trial. >> i'm fascinated by this. your network took a poll, and

70%, am i right, 70% of the people -- >> that's right. >> -- this is some kind of a plot, a setup? >> yes. it's very interesting. what it says to me, john, is if you want to ask these people who did the setup, most of them would tell you they don't know. if you were to ask them why, most would tell you they don't know, maybe they would tell you because the people behind this wanted him to lose the french presidential election. but in my opinion, the real reason is it's just incomprehensible. why would the a guy in this position, praised by almost everybody for the way he was running the imf, on his way, well on his way to becoming the next french president, why would he do something so reckless, so stupid, so violent? it doesn't make any sense. and that's what in my opinion this poll is saying. this story, as it is today, doesn't make any sense. >> and yet you talk about those poll numbers, the disbelief many french have about this.

you talk about the sympathy because of the perp walk, the handcuffed public photos. what about other cases of women coming forward? we talked last night about the history here. there's a french journalist considering filing a police complaint because of some alleged incident back in 2002? >> yes. she met with dominique strauss-khan. she was writing a book at the time. she wanted to interview him for the book and apparently he sexually assaulted her. the friend's moreporter's mothe is a friend of dominique strauss-khan and convinced her not to press charges at this point. but a couple days ago we had this mother on our network and she told us she regretted her decision, that she had made a mistake. she said in a way what she did was try to protect her daughter. she didn't want her to have this reputation, to be remembered as a victim, as the girl who had been assaulted by dominique strauss-khan for the rest of her career.

but it seems that the whole family has changed their mind and they are going now to press charges so there might very well be another serious case for dominique strauss-khan in france in the very near future. >> thierry arneault from bf mtv in france, we appreciate your insights. a fascinating case as it plays out in the united states, being watched in france and around the world. dominique strauss-khan is staying in new york city's rikers island, the infamous jail, as he awaits his friday's court appearance, the accommodations quite a change from what he's used to. the jail's breakfast menu consists of one apple and banana, a box of dried cereal with milk, two pieces of toast and coffee or tea. the breakfast menu back at the hotel where he was staying on saturday lists 28 items, including a choice of four breakfast cocktails. $30 for grilled steak and eggs, 14 bucks for cereal, banana, and milk. just like at reichers. we'll be back in a moment with

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i really didn't see it coming. i didn't realize i was drifting into the other lane. [ kim ] i was literally falling asleep at the wheel. it got my attention, telling me that i wasn't paying attention. i had no idea the guy in front of me had stopped short. but my car did. -my car did. -thankfully, my mercedes did. [ male announcer ] a world you can't predict... demands a car you can trust. the e-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. live in butte larose, louisiana. this water is not supposed to be here. right now up to about my chest. if i walk out here, it drops off pretty quickly. it goes down, pretty slushy and mushy underneath me. drops off pretty quick as you go

down. this deck right there, that's where the river is supposed to begin, right there, and all of this land on this side would be dry. that's the deck. you can go out there, obviously, sit, put a chair up there, dive off that deck. over my shoulder, you see those metal rails. that's the end of a walkway. you hold them to get out to the walkway. they are 20 steps down to the river. again, this water is not supposed to be here. it is not here just because of a flood. it is here on purpose. remember last night we e showed you the morganza spillway. they opened that spillway, diverting the water into this community on purpose so that the mississippi river, the atchafalaya river, will not be as high. they'll bring it to these communities to keep the mighty mississippi away from baton rouge, new orleans, and more populated areas. if you look around the houses right here, they are hoping because the levels are rising a little less high than these homes here, but up and down here you heard the president of this parish earlier tonight saying as many as 1,000 homes in this community could be completely inundated. you watch the waters rise.